On December 12th, 2018 the Center for Adaptation and Innovation hosted a Returning Commander Speaker Series for Colonel Adam Chalkey the Commander of Special Purpose Marine Air Ground Task Force Crisis Response Africa 18.2 (SPMAGTF-CR-AF 18.2) for a post deployment debrief. Col. Chalkey provided insights to the pre-deployment workup as well as the major occurrences during the units seven-month deployment to the AFRICOM and EUCOM Areas of Operation’s (AO).

SPMAGTF-CR-AF 18.2 provided a unique capability to the AFRICOM and MARFORAF commands with a scalable quick reaction force able to support military and diplomatic missions across northern and central Africa. SPMAGTF-CR-AF 18.2 was split between two airbases, with the command element stationed at Moron Air Base in Spain and alert force staged out of Naval Air Station Sigonella. The manning and sourcing of personnel and materials came primarily from II MEF out of Camp Lejeune North Carolina. The unit make up consisted of:

Command Element

Air Combat Element

o VMM 263(-)(Rein) consisting of 3 KC-130J and 6 MV-22B

Ground Combat Element

o Company A, 1stBn, 6th Marines (REIN)

Logistics Combat Element

o Detachment from Combat Logistics Battalion 2

SPMAGTF-CR-AF 18.2 was tasked to support Operation New Normal and worked alongside Special Operation Forces and U.S. Diplomatic personnel in North Africa. The Alert Force for SPMAGTF-CR-AF 18.2 provided a dedicated unit ready to conduct contingency operations for the Africa AO. Marines were also involved with Theater Security Cooperation mission throughout the AO building partner nation capacity through engagements of small unit tactics building, engineer courses, and intelligence advisement. SPMAGTF-CR-AF 18.2 also conducted high level training evolutions in the AFRICOM and EUCOM theaters.

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